ACCOUNTING

Accounting is the study of how businesses track their    income and assets over time. Accountants engage in a wide variety of activities besides preparing financial statements and recording business transactions including computing costs and efficiency gains from new technologies, participating in strategies for mergers and acquisitions, quality management, developing and using information systems to track financial performance, tax strategy, and hetitleh care benefits management. Accountants provide financial services to businesses, individuals, not for profit organization and government agencies at all levels.   Professional accountants develop and apply their skills in auditing, taxation, management policy, information systems, computer operations, and several other areas.  

Accounting Firms

Strategies—What Can I Do To Prepare?

Plan on pursuing a five year program to meet requirements for CPA status
Register for coursework related to accounting, economics, finance, business law, business management and organization, marketing and computer information sciences
Develop advanced computer skills especially in accounting and internal auditing
Consider a co-op program or internship
Contact a professional in the field
Become familiar with specialized certification programs
Develop mathematical and problem solving abilities, excellent communication skills, ability to work well with people, high energy level and detail orientation

Professional Associations
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York , NY 10036
Phone: 212-575-6200  
Website: www.aicpa.org/index.htm

Job Options

  Audit
Audit work involves checking accounting ledgers and financial statements within corporations and government. This work is becoming increasingly computerized and can rely on sophisticated random sampling methods. Audit is the bread and butter work of accounting. This work can involve significant travel and allows you to really understand how money is being made in the company that you are analyzing. It's great background!

Budget Analysis
Budget analysts are responsible for developing and managing financial plans. There are plentiful jobs in this area in government and private industry. Besides quantitative skills many budget analyst jobs require good people skills because of negotiations involved in the work.

Financial
Financial accountants prepare financial statements based on general ledgers and participate in important financial decisions involving mergers & acquisitions, benefits/ERISA planning and long-term financial projections. The work can be varied over time. One day you may be running spreadsheets. The next day you may be visiting a customer or supplier to set up a new account and discuss business. This work requires a good understanding of both accounting and finance.

Management Accounting
Management accountants work in companies and participate in decisions about capital budgeting and line of business analysis.   Major functions include cost analysis, analysis of new contracts and participation in efforts to control expenses efficiently. This work often involves the analysis of the structure of organizations. Is responsibility to spend money in a company at the right level of our organization? Are goals and objectives to control costs being communicated effectively? Historically, many management accountants have been derided as “bean counters.” This mentality has undergone major change as management accountants now often work side by side with marketing and finance to develop new business.

Tax
Tax accountants prepare corporate and personal income tax statements and formulate tax strategies involving issues such as financial choice, how to best treat a merger or acquisition, deferral of taxes, when to expense items and the like. This work requires a thorough understanding of economics and the tax code. Increasingly, large corporations are looking for persons with both an accounting and a legal background in tax. A person, for example, with a JD and CPA would be especially desirable to many firms .

Places Where Accounting Majors Work

  Public Accounting Firms
Public Accountants work in partnerships which provide accounting services to individuals, businesses and governments. The largest, high-profile public accounting firms are known as the Big Four and dominate the field of accounting. This field offers advancement potential to audit manager, tax manager or partner reached by only two to three percent of new hires.

  Government
Government accountants may work at the local/state level or the federal level and administer and formulate budgets, track costs and analyze programs. This work can have high impact on the public good but can also get political and is subject to     bureaucratic obstruction. Government accounting offers advancement in most organizations to controller and possibly to higher administrative positions. Places which hire heavily at the federal level include the Department of Defense, the General Accounting Office and the Internal Revenue Service.

  Corporations
Corporations big and small typically have an accounting   group which prepares financial statements, tracks costs, handles tax issues, works on international transactions. The work is exciting and offers tracks to audit manager, tax manager, cost accounting manager and controller on the accounting side or to manager of financial planning and analysis and Treasurer on the finance side.

Private Practice
A time-honored form of employment is to become a CPA and hang out your own shingle. This form of work requires you to generate your own business, but has the benefits of offering close customer contact, a high degree of independence and, depending on how good you are, high financial rewards. This work can be risky but puts you in the midst of community affairs.

Not for Profit
Not-for-profit organizations represent research, life sciences, and hetitlehcare organizations, educational organizations, performing arts, private foundations, private clubs, hetitleh and welfare entities, religious entities, low-income housing, senior hetitleh and housing, and governmental agencies. Not for profit institutions allow you to develop donation, endowment and gift acceptance policies as well as develop accounting policies and procedures.

Skills and Talents Required

Ability to make sound judgments and decisions and to solve business problems
Organize, analyze and interpret numerical data
Effectively communicate financial information, both verbally and in writing
Summarize, record, and control financial information
Measure costs, compile cost data and determine the efficiency and profitability within organizations
Knowledge of computers to research, analyze and present financial information
Ability to lead, supervise and direct others and work independently or in teams when necessary

  Education Required
A bachelor's degree in accounting or a related field is usually necessary for an accounting position.   However, if you are interested in receiving professional recognition in the field and furthering your career, a master's degree or certification or license is advisable.   Some employers prefer applicant's with a master's in accounting or master's in business administration with a concentration in accounting.   Those interested in accounting should have experience with accounting and auditing computer software as well as a specialization of expertise in accounting.  

  Professional Licensure
Certified Public Accountant (CPA)

CPA candidates must complete a four year degree. (Few states substitute a number of years of public accounting experience for a college degree.)   Accounting majors should research the curriculum and requirements of the states in which they hope to practice in.     All states use the four-part Uniform CPA Examination prepared by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).  

Finance Software

Peachtree   QuickBooks   MAS 90    Quicken    Oracle

Accounting Websites

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